A white horse standing in left profile with reins but no saddle. The bridle is covered by a head collar, and the halter rope exits the frame to the left. It stands in a schooling ring against a dark background and below the letter ‘D'. It has a cropped or docked tail. It has been suggested that the D refers to the picture's attribution to Delacroix and it is possible that this meaning is included, either as evidence of authorship by Delacroix or in homage to him, but such letters are found in all schooling rings, great and humble, to the present day. Usually the letters A to F,G or H are mounted at a suitable height to be seen by a rider and act as reference points for rider and instructor as the horse is put through its paces in what is called dressage

The confusion over the attribution for the Burrell work can be dated as early as 1885. It is known that Delacroix painted in 1824 a work whose present whereabouts is unknown. It was titled White Horse, 'Le Florido, and was exhibited at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts, 1885 at a retrospective Exposition Eugène Delacroix au profit de la souscription destinée à élever à Paris un monument à sa mémoire. It is also mentioned in Delacroix's Journal, vol. 1, 16th and 21st March 1824. A work of this name and size was viewed by Robaut at Bernheim-Jeune's in March 1885, and it was declared to be a copy of the original due to the difference in brushstrokes and the lack of any seal from the posthumous sale. Robaut attributed the copy to Alexis Perignon, the uncle (on the maternal side) of Paul Verde Delisle who had actually bought the original. It is possible that the Delisles owned both original and copy, perhaps on the death of Perignon in 1882, and it is possible that it was the Delisles who attempted to sell the copy through Bernheim-Jeune in 1885.